Comment on a National Report on College Finance and Performance
by Interim President David McClain

January 19, 2006

Dennis Jones, one of the co-authors of "A New Look at the
Institutional Component of Higher Education Finance: A Guide for
Evaluating Performance Relative to Financial Resources" and the
president of the National Center
for Higher Education Management Systems, is one of the foremost
analysts of higher education in the nation, and we take his work
seriously. This study relates to the performance of all higher
education institutions in Hawaii, public and private, and the
analysis is of data describing the status quo in the years 2000 and
2002–2003.

That said, Mr. Jones’s work suggests that performance of
state higher education systems varies directly with the preparation
of high school students entering those systems, a conclusion with
which we would certainly concur. We find that, of those students
entering our open-enrollment community college system after
graduation from high schools within the State of Hawaii
Department of Education, more than 80 percent need remediation in
math, and between 60 and 80 percent need remediation in reading and
writing.

Noting that Alaska and Maine are also in the underperforming group
suggests another factor that may be important, but is unexamined in
the Jones study—the high fixed costs of providing education at
a number of small sites distributed around a state to serve a
geographically disperse population. Only 3 of our 10 campuses
(Manoa, Leeward and Kapiolani) have more than the 5,000
students that are needed to fully realize all the available economies
of scale.

Since I began leading this university in mid-2004, I’ve
emphasized increasing our productivity for the taxpayers, students
and parents who finance our operations. Manoa Vice Chancellor
Neal Smatresk’s success last spring in offering 8 percent more
classes for students without any increase in funding is an example of
the attention I and our chancellors have been giving to this
issue.